Perham's David Sobieski and Baudette's Roger Erickson are endorsed

David Sobieski of rural Perham for 2B and Roger Erickson of rural Baudette for 2A were endorsed as state representative candidates by Democractic-Farmer-Labor Party members from Senate District 2 during its endorsing convention on Friday.

Sobieski, a small businessman from rural Perham -Butler Township in Otter Tail County-is running for public office for the first time as he vows to upset Freshman HD 2B Republican Steve Green in this fall's general election.

Rep. Erickson entered the legislature in the same freshman class of 2012 as Green. This was the second DFL endorsement for the retired teacher. Erickson does not yet have a Republican opponent.

Rod Skoe (DFL, Clearbrook) has held the Senate seat since the redistricting of 2002, when former SD 2 DFL Sen. Roger Moe ran for governor and woke up one morning to find himself living in SD 1.

Former Sen. Tony Kinkel (DFL, Park Rapids) woke up the same morning living in SD 2 instead of what was then SD 4.

No longer Bemidji's senator and not interested in running in what was almost an entirely new senate district, Kinkel left the Minnesota legislature to pursue a career in education administration, and Skoe moved up from State Rep. 2B to State Senator SD 2.

Skoe was last elected in 2012 and does not stand for re-election again until 2016.

Minnesota has 67 state senators and each Senate District has an average population of just over 79,000 determined by dividing the population of our state by 67.

To reach that number of folks, the geographically huge SD 2 must stretch from the Northwest Angle all the way down to Menahga and encompass the entire White Earth Nation, the entire Red Lake Nation and include eight counties: all of Mahnomen, Clearwater and Lake of the Woods, most of Beltrami (but not Bemidji), Becker (but not Detroit Lakes), and Hubbard (but not some northwest precincts), and some precincts in the northern tips of Wadena and Otter Tail.